State trust lands generate millions of dollars for carceral facilities and programs every year, largely from extractive industries like oil and gas drilling.
Utah
Posted inFebruary 2025: Immigrant Stories
A veteran transforms a legacy of violence into a campaign for restoration
How a former Marine found a road to repair.
Posted inArticles
Uranium trucks on Arizona’s ‘Killer 89’ spark alarm in tribal communities
White Mesa residents say they’d be last to know about accidents despite being closest to danger.
Posted inIssues
What happens after Utah’s coal-fired power plants close?
Department of Energy grants are helping eastern Utah plan for the energy transition.
Posted inArticles
How the Park City ski patrol won concessions from Vail
As patrollers and management reach an agreement, other ski patrols are learning from Park City’s example.
Posted inArticles
Our imperiled public lands
President-elect Trump, a Republican-dominated Congress and Utah launch an all-out assault on environmental protection.
Posted inArticles
How Utah’s Christmas Festival has buoyed a changing coal community
Thirty-five years ago, Helper was nearly a ghost town. Now, art and tourism are providing new paths forward.
Posted inArticles
Utah’s coal mines can’t find enough workers
A mine just reopened in eastern Utah, but the industry has changed.
Posted inDecember 2024: Land as Reparations
The passion of the Mormon feminist
For 50 years, ‘Exponent II‘ has made the LDS Church squirm. It has no plans to stop.
Posted inArticles
Audio: How nature can thrive despite human impact
What disturbance-loving plants teach.
Posted inArticles
Beautiful Bears Ears is at risk, again
What are the consequences for the land if the incoming president shrinks the national monument?
Posted inOctober 2024: Latino Vote
What the Bundy Bunkerville standoff foreshadowed
Ten years after the impasse between the Bundy family and the BLM, the doctrine of white oppression is widely embraced.
Posted inOctober 2024: Latino Vote
The downballot issues driving the West’s 2024 elections
From climate and public lands to shifting political allegiances, the region faces critical choices at the ballot box.
Posted inSeptember 2024: When Migrants Go Missing
Venezuelan migrants use social media to counter xenophobia
In the face of anti-immigration rhetoric, content creators show the ‘good outnumber the bad.’
Posted inSeptember 2024: When Migrants Go Missing
Kinkajous, coprolites and geothermal jamborees
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inArticles
How carbon removal can help curb wildfires and build houses
Local governments in the Four Corners back homegrown carbon-removal projects.
Posted inArticles
Utah wants your public land — for more roads
The state wants to build a highway through tortoise habitat.
Posted inArticles
Why Utah is suing the U.S. for control of public land
The state asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to weigh in on the future of federal lands.
Posted inAugust 2024: In the Wake of the Floods
The inequity of heat
Extreme heat doesn’t discriminate; the ability to escape it does.
Posted inAugust 2024: In the Wake of the Floods
How do you protect wildlife from sprawl?
A fast-growing Utah exurb gets serious about migration corridors.